Conventional automotive vehicles include a cowl cover that attaches to a bottom edge of a windshield of the vehicle. The cowl cover is typically made from molded plastic and may have a unitary construction or may consist of multiple connectable sections depending on the requirements of a particular application. The cowl cover may be attached to the windshield of the vehicle using clips mounted to a bottom surface of the cowl cover. The cowl cover is held against an outside surface of the windshield by engaging the clips with corresponding protrusions extending from an upper dash region of the vehicle. This method of attachment, however, may not produce a consistently tight gap-free connection between the cowl cover and the windshield due to various manufacturing tolerances of the involved parts. Furthermore, differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion between parts, such as the windshield and cowl cover, may cause the cowl cover to warp under certain conditions, possibly causing a gap to occur between the windshield and the cowl cover.
Another method for attaching the cowl cover to the windshield involves engaging a lower edge of the windshield with a series of clips molded into an aft edge of the cowl cover. The resulting fit between the cowl cover and the windshield is often dependant on the positioning and relative spacing of the clips. Improper spacing may produce an unsatisfactory fit between the cowl cover and the windshield that is not very aesthetically pleasing, but may also allow water to pass between the cowl cover and the windshield. Using this attachment method may also lead to undesirable vibration noise occurring between the windshield and cowl cover when operating the vehicle.
Because of these and other known limitations of existing methods for connecting a cowl cover to a windshield of an automotive vehicle, it is desirable to develop a connecting device for producing a tight fit between the cowl cover and an outer surface of the windshield.